Beijing Journal

Stitching the Narrative of a Revolution

Peasants recited quotations from Mao’s “Little Red Book” before toiling in the fields in a village near Beijing in July of 1967.

In a handwritten series of 1972 speeches, many of them heavily edited in pen, a teacher from Beijing’s outskirts recalled how his comrades “patiently and delicately” sought to reform a teacher who was not a worker, but a member of the wealthy class. Rounds of criticism had little effect, so the group chose to help him realize his mistakes through physical labor, by weeding farmland.

“He pulled grass,” the speech read. “At first, he was squatting, but he couldn’t handle it after two days. Then he pulled the grass while kneeling. Finally, he did it while crawling.”

Party censors excised the tale of the exhausted teacher from the final draft of the speech.